Historian and archivist Ignazio Perrucci, was hiredby the Vatican authorities in 2012, to sort, analyze andclassify some 6,000 ancient documents that had beenuncovered in the gigantic archive vaults. He was alreadyvery excited when he noticed that the author of the text was the famous Romanhistorian Velleius, but he was completely stunned when he realized the nature ofthe content. The text as a whole is a narrative of the author’s return journey from Parthiato Rome that occurred in 31 AD, recorded in a highly rhetorical style of four sheetsof parchment. He describes many different episodes taking place during his trip,like a a violent sandstorm in Mesopotamia and visit to a temple in Melitta (modernday Mdina, in Malta).The part of the text that really caught M. Perrucci’s attention is an episodetaking place in the city of Sebaste (near modern day Nablus, in the West Bank).The author first describes the arrival of a great leader in the town with a group ofdisciples and followers, causing many of the lower class people from neighbouringvillages to gather around them. According to Velleius, that great man’s name wasIēsous de Nazarenus, a Greco-Latin translation of Jesus’ Hebrew name, YeshuahaNotzri.Upon entering town, Jesus would have visited the house of a woman namedElisheba, who had just given birth to a stillborn child. Jesus picked up the deadchild and uttered a prayer in Aramaic to the heavens, which unfortunately theauthor describes as “immensus”, meaning incomprehensible. To the crowd’ssurprise and amazement, the baby came back to life almost immediately, cryingand squirming like a healthy newborn.Marcus Velleius Paterculus, being a Roman officer of Campanian origins,seems to perceive Jesus Christ as a great doctor and miracle man, withoutassociating him in any way to the Jewish concept of Messiah.Many tests and analysis have been realized over the last weeks todetermine the authenticity of the manuscript. The composition of the parchmentand ink, the literary style and handwriting have all been carefully scrutinized andwere considered to be entirely legitimate. The dating analysis also revealed thatthe sheepskin parchment on which the text is written, does indeed date from the1st century of this era, more precisely from between 20-45 AD.This new text from an author known for his reliability, brings a brand newperspective on the life of the historical character that is Jesus of Nazareth. Itcomes to confirm the Gospels on the facts that he was known for accomplishingmiracles and that his sheer presence in a town was enough to attract crowds ofpeople.A complete and official translation of the document should be madeavailable online in many different languages over the next few weeks, but theimpact of the discovery is already felt in the scientific community. Many scholarshave already saluted the finding as one of the greatest breakthrough ever realizedin the study of the historical life of Jesus, while others have expressed doubtsabout the conclusions of Professor Perrucci and demand for more tests to beperformed by other scientific institutions before drawing any conclusions.